My last post was greeted with some praise and approbation for its purported positive nature and tone. That surprised me some, as I had seen it as pretty neutral but, hey, I'll take approval anytime. Maybe, though, it was just because it wasn't "negative" or "depressing" or snarky, as so many of my things are seen to be. Seems to me that it's actually been a while since I've put one of those out there: Well, as they used to say in the intro to the old TV Western "Tonto and Companion" (revisionism hard at work, there) "Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear...."
I've had this thing percolating for a couple of weeks, the show ready to go for a while, so maybe that's part of it, but I'm just, frankly, sick to death of the topic, which is, basically, shame. I'm ashamed that I'm sitting here at my computer, writing some stupid and ineffectual white liberal words at a safe distance, rather than standing in NYC or Ferguson, MO, or any of dozens of places, shoulder-to-shoulder, showing solidarity with the black community (which is to say, really, just the human community), showing my outrage and sympathy at the racism that still pervades and permeates and poisons this otherwise pretty good country in which I live. I'm ashamed of being an American (this sort of racism is pretty much foreign to the rest of the developed world), ashamed of being white, ashamed of being human, for Chrissakes. Why is it that, through sheer accident of birth, I can feel (mostly) safe, secure, protected by those who are supposed to provide such protection, while other people, different from me only by virtue of their pigmentation, must fear those whose job is, nominally, to protect and serve? Why must some of my fellow countrymen consider every minute detail of their behavior or presentation every time they come into contact with a white person, especially a cop? How can this be true still, in 2014, if Darwin was right? Can't really see much racial-tolerance-evolution in my lifetime, can you? Have you heard that more money has been raised for the defense of the white cop who shot unarmed, hands-in-the-air Michael Brown six times, than for Brown's funeral and family? Really, what can anyone even say about this whole situation?
Gary Larson (of the late, lamented comic "The Far Side") had a typically brilliant cartoon years ago, called something like "What dogs hear," which showed a person talking lovingly to a dog, whose name was Ginger, saying the usual stuff we all say to our dogs, talking to them like they are people and understand our every word: What the dog heard was "Blah, blah, blah, blah, Ginger, blah, blah, blah...." That's what this feels like to me. It's the same old shit, over and over and over again (Dave Clark Five). So I guess all I wanna say, inarticulately and inelegantly and assuredly ineffectually, is "What is wrong with us?" Read about Emmett Till, read (again and again) Toni Morrison's masterpiece Song Of Solomon, which gives an amazing perspective on the issue of what blacks, from way before and, sickeningly, way after Emmett Till, in a purportedly post-racist America, must face, and how young black men, in particular, must learn to cope with a world which privileged whites--which is to say, for the most part, whites--never know. And, really, just listen to Mavis Staples and The Staple Singers' entire body of work, which addresses that life and that perspective in a singular and beautiful and incredibly inspiring, loving, understanding way. While The Staples alone are enough, here are the songs I'm playing this week:
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) Marvin Gaye
Ball Of Confusion (That's What The World Is Today) The Temptations
Get Up, Stand Up Bob Marley & The Wailers
Here I Stand Before Me Crash Test Dummies
I Ain't Gonna Stand For It Stevie Wonder
I Can't Stand It Maria Muldaur
I Can't Stand Up Alone Jesse Winchester
I Stand Accused King Curtis
Running To Stand Still U2
Stand The Bees
Living For The City Stevie Wonder
The Ghetto Donny Hathaway
Why Can't We Be Friends War
I'll Take You There The Staple Singers
Stand R.E.M.
Stand Sly & The Family Stone
Stand Amazed John Martyn
Stand And Be Counted Crosby, Stills, Nash&Young
Stand And Fight James Taylor
Stand Back The Allman Brothers Band
Stand By Me John Lennon
Stand Up Bim Skala Bim
Stand Up Bobby Womack
Stand Up (And Be Strong) Keb' Mo'
Train In Vain (Stand By Me) The Clash
Standing In My Shoes Leo Kottke
United We Stand Brotherhood Of Man
We Stand Together Harper
Slippin' Into Darkness War
The World Is A Ghetto War
Touch A Hand (Make A Friend) The Staple Singers
Hope to see you Tuesday, noon till two, on Wool FM, 91.5, or wool.fm on the webs.
"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts...?" I don't think any of us really does.
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